


A Cost

by sableu



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-24 18:26:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6162589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sableu/pseuds/sableu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sabo decides to come see Luffy after a battle, but finds Luffy in a worse shape than he expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Cost

It wasn’t easy to arrange time to spend together when one of you was a pirate captain and the other was a revolutionary leader, but after all the years Sabo had lost to amnesia he was determined to.  The first time he heard Luffy was on an island anywhere near him on the Grand Line he set sail- asking Dragon’s permission first, of course, but planning on going no matter what the answer was.  Thankfully Dragon agreed, so there wasn’t any trouble.

The newspaper had reported a huge fight on the island Sabo was headed towards.  Mass destruction.  Of course Luffy was there; where would he be except the place where destruction reigned?  Sabo hoped he hadn’t gotten himself too banged up, but he was trying not to worry.  He had a bad habit of worrying, even though he knew full well that Luffy could take care of himself and wouldn’t want him to stress.

He mored his ship, the Liberator, off the coast of the island in a secluded area.  He didn’t want to make a spectacle- he wasn’t here as a revolutionary, he was here as a brother.

Luckily he spotted the Thousand Sunny almost immediately.  It was a beautiful ship, remarkably made.  

 _Fit for a king_ , he thought with a smile as he observed it.

He paused before approaching so he could take in the sight of the Straw Hat jolly roger blowing in the breeze.  He felt a rush of pride and unspeakable gratitude towards fate for allowing his little brother the life he deserved, and towards his little brother for being such an incredible person as to come so far so effortlessly.  

If the blood, sweat and tears Luffy had undeniably gone through counted as effortless, that is.  He certainly made them appear that way.  Literally and figuratively, Luffy seemed capable of bouncing back from anything.  Without further ado, Sabo jumped from the beach and landed easily on the bulworks of the ship.

The orange-haired woman, the skeleton, and the guy who’d gotten a five star label in Dressrosa were all on the front deck.  Nami, Brook, and Usopp, he recalled.  Names often slipped his mind, but Luffy’s crew he was determined to remember.

All three of the Straw Hats on the deck leapt back at his sudden appearance, drawing their weapons.  In an instant a staff, a sword, and a slingshot were all pointed towards his throat.  

Sabo laughed and put his hands up in surrender.  “I come in peace.”

The slingshot lowered slowly.  “That’s Sabo,” Usopp said.

“Sabo?” Nami repeated.  “The other brother?”

Usopp nodded.

Sabo inclined his hat at them.  “I’m here to see Luffy, if that’s all right by you all.”

They didn’t look as welcoming as he’d expected they’d be once they realized who he was.  Instead they shifted a little, seeming uncomfortable.  He noticed that they- at least the two of them that were living- were covered in bandages and badly bruised.

“Tough fight?” he guessed.

Nami didn’t move for a moment, then nodded, retracting her staff and putting it back in its holster.  “Yeah,” she said.  “Tough fight.”

She and Usopp exchanged a glance.

Breaking the awkward silence, Sabo said,  “...If Luffy’s resting I can come back later.  I just thought it’d be nice to pay him a visit.”

Did the Straw Hats not trust him to come aboard?  That stung a little, but he couldn’t blame them.  You couldn’t show up virtually out of nowhere after so many years and not be met with a little suspicion.

“No, it’s okay,” Usopp said suddenly.  “You can see him.  I...think that would be good, actually.”

Nami and Brook nodded in agreement.  For the first time since Sabo’s arrival, Brook resheathed his sword completely.  Sabo gave them a grateful smile and stepped down onto the grassy deck.  It was a smile also tinged with worry, however.  Why was the crew acting so oddly?  He’d thought it was because they were wary of letting an outsider on their ship, but they’d let him on now, so...

Nami led him to what he realized was the ship’s infirmary.  Sabo was startled at first, but he reminded himself that they’d just been in a battle.  Of course Luffy was injured, he was Luffy.  Surely he’d thrown himself into the brunt of the fight.

When Sabo entered the infirmary he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, flooded with relief.  There was Luffy, lying in bed and looking very much alive.  In fact, compared to the state he’d been in after using Gear Fourth he looked positively peachy.

“Hey, Luffy!” Sabo said, walking over.

As soon as Luffy’s eyes hit Sabo’s his expression brightened immensely.  Tears gathered in his eyes.  “Sabo!”

“Yeah, it’s me.  I heard there was some chaos going on down here and figured out it was you guys.  I was pretty close anyway, so I thought I’d drop by.”

“Thanks!” Luffy’s face turned troubled.  “After what happened...I...thanks, Sabo.”

Sabo blinked, confused.  “What?  What’s wrong?  What happened?”

Luffy bit his lip, then sat up and moved the covers off of himself.

 Sabo habitually took a step back and covered his mouth.  “L-Luffy-”

Luffy’s right shoulder was bandaged and his right arm was completely gone.  His right leg, too, was now nothing more than a stump at the end of his torso.

“Usopp was in big trouble,” Luffy explained slowly.  “I had to save him so I- I moved in front of him.  There was nothing else I could do in that moment.  At least, I didn’t think there was at the time.  Maybe if I were smarter I could have...” he trailed off.  There were tears in his eyes again, but not from happiness this time.

Rage clouded Sabo’s mind.  Rage at who, he wasn’t sure.  At the enemy for hurting his brother so badly?  At the Straw Hats for letting their captain be injured?  At himself for promising to be there when Luffy needed him but failing so spectactularly?

He started to shake.  His fingers formed claws and gripped the frame of the bed so hard it started to bend underneath them.

Luffy gave him a watery smile, obviously picking up on how upset he was.  “It’s okay, though!  Franky says he can make me an awesome robot arm and leg to replace them!  Isn’t that cool?  I’ll be a cyborg like him!  I mean, a lot of my moves rely on both my arms or both my legs being rubber, but...I can make new moves...”

The unhappiness in his voice was obvious and it shattered Sabo’s heart.

Sabo loosened his grip on the bed frame and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.  It wasn’t his place to be so upset by this, it was Luffy’s.  He was was meant to be supportive right now.  Him being upset would just make Luffy more unhappy, and that was the absolute last thing Sabo wanted.

He knelt down next to the bed, putting his hand over Luffy’s remaining one.  “I’m so sorry this happened.”

Luffy shook his head slightly.  “I don’t regret it.  ‘Cause it means Usopp’s okay.  But it’s just...I’ve spent so long coming up with cool techniques and now half of them are useless.  It doesn’t seem fair.”

Sabo squeezed his hand.  “Remember when we were little?” he said softly.  “When every time you tried to use your devil fruit powers you’d just recoil and hit yourself in the face?”

Luffy sniffed.  “Uh-huh.”

“Ace and me thought your powers were useless and that you’d never be able to fight with them, but look at you.  You did it.  If there’s anyone out there who can come up with a way of fighting even when the odds are against them, it’s you.”

“You believe that?”

“Of course I do.”

Luffy took a deep breath.  “I just wanna be out of this bed, too.  It’s so boring.  But Chopper says I have to stay, and even if he let me leave I couldn’t really walk until Franky finishes making the pros-pros-”

“Prostheses?”

“Yeah.”

Sabo chuckled, leaning against the mattress.  “Wanna know how long I was stuck in bed after that...incident?”  He gestured at his scarred eye.

Luffy’s curiosity was perked.  “How long?” he asked.

“Two months.”

“Two months?!” Luffy echoed, horrified.  “That sounds awful!  Didn’t you get bored?”

Sabo nodded.  “It was pretty painful, too.  And sad.  There was a period of time when they thought I might not walk again, at least not without a cane or crutches.  I lost a lot of feeling in my left arm and shoulder, the sight in one eye...to this day I still have a bit of a limp, but I’m alive.  And so are you.  You saved your nakama’s life, and you’re still alive yourself.  That’s something to celebrate.  Right?”

“Y-yeah.”

“No one said the pirate king couldn’t have a prosthetic arm and leg,” Sabo pointed out, grinning.  He cuffed Luffy lightly on the side of the head.  “So hang in there, future king.”

“You were really in bed for two months?”

“Yep.”

“That sucks!”

“It’s in the past, just like this is gonna be.  A couple years from now you’ll wonder why you were even upset about it,” Sabo said.  

He sat down on the covers and pulled Luffy into his arms, hugging him lightly enough so as not to tamper with his bandages.  He rested his cheek on the top of Luffy’s messy black locks.

“As soon as I get better I’m gonna start training twice as hard,” Luffy declared.  “I have a lot of new moves to create.”

“I look forward to seeing Gomu Gomu no Mecha Gatling Gun.”

Luffy laughed.  “Sabo, that sounds silly.”

“What?!  I’d like to see you come up with something better!”

Luffy laughed even harder at that, and the sound reverberated against Sabo’s chest.  Sabo was still pissed as hell that someone had dared to hurt him so badly and he would tear the monster who did it apart if he ever lay eyes on them...but Luffy was laughing.

If Luffy was capable of laughing, Sabo knew things were going to turn out absolutely fine.


End file.
